The trend continued last Saturday with a victory at George Washington, but the Wildcats' road warrior mentality will be severely tested this week against Gonzaga.

The Wildcats split a pair of neutral site games earlier in the NIT Season Tip-Off in New York, beating Delaware and losing the title game to then No. 4 Michigan, but the 65-62 win at George Washington on Saturday was their first true road test of the season. They are 24-16 in true road games since the 2008-09 season and have won seven of their last eight nonconference road games.

"We just wanted to see how we would respond to the crowd playing in a true road game," K-State associate head coach Chris Lowery said Monday on the Big 12 Conference teleconference, subbing for Bruce Weber, who was traveling and not available.

The attendance was only 3,570, but that was a large crowd for George Washington.

"We really tried to be positive with them (Wildcats) when they (Colonials) made their first run," Lowery said. "We made it really clear that this was a game where we knew it would be their biggest crowd of the season that they'd had thus far. They had T-shirts on each chair, they had the students in there early and they were barbecuing outside.

"We knew what we were going to be walking into, and we wanted to have our guys weather that first five-minute storm of their excitement of playing a Big 12 school."

Road environments will become much more hostile for the Wildcats (7-1), beginning Saturday when they play Gonzaga. That game will be at Key Arena in Seattle, not the Bulldogs' home in Spokane.

"At least we're not in 'The Kennel' in their home," Lowery said. "It's still a road game, but it's not in the confines of home where they are right on top of you like they are at their home court."

It's similar to the scenario the Wildcats will have when they play Florida at Sprint Center in Kansas City on Dec. 22, a neutral homecourt advantage.

Gonzaga is coming off an 85-74 home loss to Illinois, dropping the Bulldogs four spots to No. 14 in this week's national rankings.

The Bulldogs — who have a pair of 7-footers in Kelly Olynky and Rzemek Karnowski — were ranked No. 1 in the nation in field goal percentage last week at .533, and currently they are shooting .527.

"It starts with the interior," Lowery said. "They have those four big guys and they all play off double-teams, and their guards are very good shooters from the perimeter so that leads to a recipe for success as far as field goal percentage.

"They pass great out of double-teams. They feast on you if you play behind them or give them angles in the post. They do a really good job of playing on the inside first and then out."

CLEANING THE GLASS: One statistic that jumped out from K-State's win at George Washington was rebounding. The Wildcats had a 46-36 advantage, grabbing 24 rebounds off the offensive board.

"We've really promoted offensive rebounding, and we really rebound the ball at a high, high clip," Lowery said. "I've never been on a team that had more offensive rebounds than defensive rebounds like we did against George Washington.

"We have a great nose and knack for 50-50 balls that can go either way."

McGruder notched his fifth career double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds against George Washington, which came in his hometown of Washington, D.C. He made 6 of 18 shots, going 3 of 6 from 3-point range, with one assist and one steal in 39 minutes.